The affair of St. Charles decided the fate of the contest. A general panic spread among the peasantry, and they began to consider themselves betrayed by leaders, who did not show the courage expected of them in the hour of trial. Colonel Gore, strongly reinforced, again advanced upon St. Denis, which he entered without resistance on the 2d of December, Neilson and Brown having quitted it on the preceding evening. He then marched upon St. Hyacinth, but found it also undefended, and made a vain search for Papineau. The chiefs, renouncing their hopes, were already seeking safety in the territory of the United States. Brown reached it with great difficulty—through many perils; Neilson was taken in a barn, conveyed to Montreal, and thrown into prison. Papineau could not be traced; nor is there any record of his having compromised his personal safety in a contest which he had been the main instrument in exciting.
Attempts, however, were made to support the cause from a quarter which, under certain circumstances, might have proved very formidable. The United States contained many individuals disposed to sympathize deeply with the Canadians, and many restless spirits were inclined to join them, allured by the promise of large lots of confiscated land. Even in the present hopeless circumstances, 200 passed the frontier; but before Sir John Colborne could send a force against them, a party of the volunteers of Missiqui county, under the command of Capt. Kemp, took arms, and drove them back with some loss. Thus, the whole of the six counties, so lately in open rebellion, were in a fortnight reduced to perfect tranquillity.
There remained still the districts of Two Mountains and Terrebonne, north of Montreal, where insurrection had been first organized, and still wore its most determined aspect. Sir John Colborne had judiciously postponed operations against this quarter, till, the south being completely tranquillized, he could direct thither his whole force. On the 14th of December, he marched in person, with about 1,300 regular and volunteer troops, against the large village of St. Eustache. The disasters of their brethren elsewhere had spread a well-founded alarm; and the greater number of the men and their leaders, including Girod, the supposed commander-in-chief, fled precipitately. About 400 of the most desperate, however, continued to occupy a church and adjoining buildings, which had been carefully fortified; and here so obstinate a stand was made, that a British detachment was at one point made to recede. But fire having reached the adjacent edifices, soon spread to the church itself, the defenders of which were thereby speedily dislodged; while the troops, being protected by the houses, did not lose more than one killed and nine wounded.
